Miner&#39;s safety-lamp.



T. E. SUFFOLKVI J. PIGGFORD.

MINERS SAFETY LAMP.

APPLICATION FILED MAILZO, I9I5.

Patented Apr. 18, 1916.

.LIWQWI .If m i y l I LI mmm @uvam/tom THOMAS E. SUFFOLK AND JOSEPHPIGGFORD, OF ELIZABETH, PENNSYLVANIA.

MINERS SAFETY-LAMP.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 16, 1916.

Application led March 20, 1915. Serial No. 15 .921.

17 '0 all whom t may concern Be it known that we, THOMAS E. SUFFOLK andJOSEPH PIGGroRD, citizens of the United States of America, residing atElizabeth, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Miners Safety-Lamps, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in miners safety lamps and hasparticular application to a lamp of that type wherein the flame isextinguished by the presence of a gas, thereby preventing an explosion.

In carrying out the present invention, it is our purpose to provide alamp of the class described wherein the burner casing will be heldclosed effectively and securely in such manner that the miner will beunable to expose the flame while working in the mine, therebyeliminating the dangers incident to the fiame coming into Contact withthe gas.

It is also our purpose to provide a miners safety lamp wherein the fuelreservoir will be securely held to the burner casing and which will beconstructed in such manner that air may freely enter and leave theburner casing to promote combustion while any gas in the atmospheresurrounding the lamp will be excluded from the interior of vthe burnercasing.

fr further object of our invention is to improve and simplify thegeneral construction of miners safety lamps and to provide a safety lampwhich may be worn upon the cap of the miner and which will be light anddurable in structure and capable of pro ducing a strong light tofacilitate the opera tion in the mine.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention consists in theconstruction, combination and arrangement of parts here inafter setforth in and falling within the scope of the claims.

In the accompanying drawing: Figure l is a view in side elevation of aminers safety lamp constructed in accordance with the present invention.Fig. 2 is a vertical central sectional view through the lamp. Fig. 3 isan enlarged horizontal sectional view on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4is a bottom plan view of one of the baffle plates. Fig. 5 is a crosssectional view therethrough.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, 1 designates a burner casing.This casing is preferably formed of an inner shell'2 and an outer shell3 spaced apart a short distance from the inner shell so as to provide anair space between the walls of the burner casing. In the presentinstance, this burner casing is substantially cup-shaped and the shells2 and 3 at the open end of the casing are suitably connected to eachother and threaded into the casing at the open end thereof is a lenscarrier comprising an annulus el and a bell 5 formed integral with theannulus et and projecting outwardly from the open end of the burnercasing 1. Secured within the bell 5 at the junction of the latter withthe annulus 4f is a lens 6, while secured within the bell at the outerend thereof is a lens 7 spaced apart from the lens 6.

Formed in the top wall of the burner casing 1 is an opening and disposedwithin the opening is a circular band 8 formed interiorly with anannular shoulder 9 and disposed within the band 8 and bearing againstthe under surface of the shoulder 9 is a disk of wire gauze 10. Thisdisk of wire gauge is held against the shoulder 9 by means of a baffleplate 11 comprising a circular disk 12 having the periphery thereoflformed with an upwardly projecting flange 13, the flange 13 being formedwith an inwardly extending flange 14. In prac tice, the baffle plate 1lis disposed within the annular band 8 at the inner end of the latter andthe flange 14 engages the wire disk to hold the latter against theshoulder 9, while the disk 12 is formed with a number of openings 15through which the products of combustion within the burner casing maypass to the outer atmosphere. Formed on the bottom wall of the burnercasing 1 and depending therefrom is a nipple 16 and suitably fastened tothe nipple 16 within the burner casing is an approrpriate form of burnertip 17, while located in the nipple 16 is a controlling valve 18.

19 designates a fuel reservoir and formed on the upper end of thereservoir 19 is a nipple 20 threaded into the nipple 16, while locatedin the nipple 20 is a cut off valve 21 by means of which the flow offuel from the reservoir may be stopped.

In the present instance, the side wall of the fuel reservoir 19 isformed with a circular row of notches 22 and engageable with the notches22 is one extremity of a leaf spring 23, the remaining extremity ofrespectively` the leaf spring being` fastened to the rear wall of theburner casing. By means'of this construction, it will be seen that whenthe nipple 2O on the fuel reservoir 19 is threaded into the nipple 16and the lower end of the spring 23 engaged with an adjacent notch 22,the fuel reservoir will be held against accidental turni-ng movementrelatively to the burner casing. Secured to the rear end wall of theburner casing is a hook 24 whereby the lamp may be secured to the cap ofthe miner.

In the present instance, one side wall of the burner casing 1 is formedwith a sight opening in which is disposed a glass disk 25 and slidableover the glass disk 25 is a plate 2G mounted within suitable guidescarried by the side walls of the burner casing. When it is desired todetermine the presence of gas the plate 26 is moved to uncover the glassdisk 25 and the conduct of the iame issuing from the burner tip 17 notedthrough the glass 25 so that the presence or absence of an explosive gasmay be determined as is well known. llVhen the window formed by theglass disk 25 is out of use the plate 26 is slid to cover the glassdisk. In this instance, one side Wall of the burner casing is equippedwith asparking device 27 whereby a spark maybe thrown across the burnertip 17 when the valves 17 and 21 are opened so as to ignite the gasflowing through the burner tip from the fuel reservoir 19. The bottomwall of the burner casing is formed with` an 'air inlet opening 28 thatis protected ina manner identical to the outlet lopening vin the topwall of the burner casing so as t'o prevent the entrance of gas to thecasing.

In accordance with the present invention, we have provided lockingdevices yfor the lens carrier and the fuel reservoir respectively sothat the miner will be enabled to remove the lens carrier or detach thefuel reservoir from the lamp casing. Thus, the possibility of anexplosion due to the care lessness of the miner will be eliminated. Thelocking devices are magnetically controlled and comprise open endedcylinders 29 secured to the wall of the burner casing at the front endthereof and to the nipple 16 respectively. Slidably mounted in eachcylinder 29 is a circular armatureV 30 carrying a pin 31, and formed inthe outer wall of the annulus 4 andv the similar wall of the nipple 2Oare circular rows of notches 32 The outer end of each cylinder 29 isclosed by means of a cap plate 33 and interposed between the cap plate33 and the armature is a coiled expansion spring 34 acting to force thepin 31 into an adjacent notch 32. When it is desired to apply the lenscarrier and the fuel reservoir to the burner casing, electromagnets areplaced in proximity to the armatures 30, thereby sliding the latteragainst the action of the springs 84 to withdraw the pins 31 fromoperative position. The annulus 4t of the lens carrieris now threadedinto the open end of the burner casing and the nipple 2() threaded intothe nipple 16 and when the lens carrier and the nipple 2O are properlypositioned the armatures 30 are relieved of the influence of the magnetsand the springs 84 react and so slide the pins into the adjacent notches32. Thus, the lens carrier is locked in position and the fuel reservoirlocked to the burner casing in such a manner that the miner cannotobtain access to the burner casing.

While we have herein shown and described the preferred form of ourinvention by way of illustration, we wish it to be understood that we donot limit or confine ourselves to the precise details of constructionherein described and delineated, as modification and variation may bemade within the scope of the claims without departing from the spiritofthe invention.

.Ve claim:

A miners safety lamp comprising a burner casing having an open end andformed of an inner shell and an outer shell spaced apart from the innershell, a lens carrier carried by the open end of said casing, two lensesin said carrier spaced apart, a nipple depending from said casing, afuel reservoir connected with said nipple, a burner tip within saidcasing connected to said nipple, said casing being formed with an inletopening below the burner tip and an outlet opening above the tip wherebyair may be admitted to the casing and the products of combustiondischarged from the casing, a disk of wire mesh protecting each opening,and a baille plate disposed between the disk of wire mesh in the outletopening and the llame of the burner.

In testimony whereof we aiiix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

THOMAS E. SUFFOLK. JOSEPH PIGGFORD. lVitnesses HARRY L. MGGUIRE, WILLIAMLANGAN.

Copies of this patent may he obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

